Microsoft Phones: 3 Reasons they Failed

It is the end of an era as tech giant Microsoft are set to close their book on the Windows Phone operating system. Since 2000, Microsoft phones have existed, but a Microsoft executive revealed the company doesn’t plan on releasing further software. Competition from Google’s market-leading Android system, together with Apple’s iOS have made it difficult to compete. So we take a look at three causes for the end of this era, helping to see what caused this situation.

Microsoft struggled to secure market share for their operating system

Competition

Despite Microsoft being involved in the phone market for almost two decades, the company simply didn’t keep up with the might of Google and Apple when the smartphone era boomed. Google’s Android system is the most popular worldwide, while Apple’s iOS system has many followers. These two operating systems have proven popular, with patrons reluctant to part ways with the top two. With Google and Apple integration, the two major competitors help with convenience considerably. Unfortunately for Microsoft, they just couldn’t break the domination of Google and Apple.

Going back to the booming of the smartphone era, applications have been at the forefront of day-to-day life. Yet these applications are expensive to build, and require maximum user uptake to make money. Therefore, given the low number of users of Microsoft’s operating system (compared to Google and Apple), app developers were reluctant to build their apps for the Microsoft model. With a lack of apps, it is always difficult to attract users.

Windows 8 Disaster

Windows 8 was an operating system designed to work on desktop computers, tablets and smartphones. On paper it was an excellent idea, but the move ended up being disastrous. Windows 8 was plagued with issues and didn’t quite achieve the aim that it set out to succeed with. Windows 10 arrived soon after, but by then the damage was done. As was mentioned earlier, Google and Apple had such a stranglehold on the market that it was simply too late to avert disaster.

So all of this considered, and it simply doesn’t seem worthwhile for Microsoft to invest time and money into phones. They are still highly-competitive in the computer industry, and Windows 10 is certainly a triumph. Unfortunately for them however, their phone line just wasn’t cut out for the contemporary world. Will anyone else dare take on Google and Apple?! Could Microsoft ever stage a fightback? We’ll have to wait and see.

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